The Bligh Labor Government has again put deals with the big boys ahead of jobs creation, with a newly announced Information Technology deal leaving Queensland businesses out in the cold.

Shadow Minister for Public Works Jann Stuckey said the state’s IT industry employed more than 70,000 Queenslanders, but exclusive government deals were cutting out most of the industry.

“The Minister is attempting to sell this deal based on savings he believes will occur. However, as the recent backflip and cost blowouts on the Technology Transformation Project shows, what this Minister claims and what he delivers are two separate things,” Ms Stuckey said.

“While on the surface, the three-year enterprise licensing agreement with Microsoft may look good for Queensland, the devil is truly in the details.

“This deal has echoes of the previously abandoned Master Vendor IT Contracting Model.

“Premier Bligh and Labor have opted to only include an ‘invited’ panel of large account resellers to take part in this deal.

“This decision sends a strong message to the Queensland IT industry that unless you are a big business, this Labor Government doesn’t want to know you.

“Industry outrage forced them to abandon this model in the past, but now they are now trying to sneak it back in.

“There are some 3,000 Microsoft resellers operating in Queensland – only the smallest fraction will see any benefit from this deal.

“It is no wonder the Minister announced this deal on a public holiday — he knows he has once again let down the local IT industry and stopped further job creation by choosing to only work with his hand-picked big boys.”